To the hiring team at Ride the Lion:
My name is Creath Carter; I'm a veteran digital artist for interactive media and I'm interested in your Tech Artist role. My broad skill set and technical understanding of our medium has spanned AAA and independent studios, and has given me production experience in most positions of a game art team, most applicable to this role being as a Technical, Environment, Character, and VFX Artist.
I have created multiple asset libraries, studio workflows, animation suites, and full small-scale projects, and I have fluency in almost all major game engines and authoring software. My balance of disciplines allows me to bridge the gaps between art, design, and engineering.
I am currently one of the organizers for the monthly Boston Game Development Unreal meetup.
Please explore the samples of my work on this page, and I hope my skills and experience are worth consideration for this role.
TECH ART, VFX, ENGINEERING
On larger teams I have most often found myself acting as the cross-disciplinary liaison between art, engineering, and design. When I am not hands-on as an artist, tech-artist, or generalist, I am managing art assets, external content provider schedules, developing pipelines and tools, and maintaining best practices for my teams.
ENVIRONMENT ART
Environment and atmosphere were my first love in games, and I have been an Environment Artist, Level Designer, and MMO Worldbuilder at different points in my career. I have comprehensive knowledge of the full environment art pipeline, from concepts and look development, preproduction estimates, asset organization, sculpting, modeling, texturing, on through to engine implementation, with optimization, lighting and collision passes. I have worked with hand-crafted modeling, terrain engine heightmaps, voxel-based engines, modular 3D "tiles", and have extensive experience with most supporting systems like world-streaming, geometry LODs, procedural generation, lighting and atmospheric systems.
CHARACTER ART, ANIMATION, RIGGING
I began my professional career processing mocap data as a Cinematic Artist on EA's Godfather game, but bringing characters, creatures, and objects to life through unique designs and colorful hand animation is another aspect of creativity I could pursue exclusively. While I can author rigs in Maya, 3dsMax, and Blender, 3ds Max's CAT system has been my primary partner for rigging and animation for 15 years.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY ROLES
Game Engines
Unity
Unreal
Godot
Cocos
Software Fluency
3DS Max
Maya
Blender
Photoshop
Zbrush
Gaea
Substance
Collaboration
Atlassian
Notion
Figma
Tech-Art
Game development is my favorite game; it offers me the most organic, unique, and challenging puzzles of any interactive experience. I gravitated toward the intersection of the technical and visual roles early on, wanting to create my own projects within the medium, but I also thrive off of problem-solving.
Character Design and Creation
I have a sound knowledge of anatomy, strong animation principles, can author character rigs, facial rigs and blendshapes. I've studied character design extensively through my own work, online lectures, and every game and film I absorb. While environments are my first love, characters are the most interesting to bring to life.
Software Proficiency
I am fluent in nearly all standard 2D and 3D DCC applications, and have working knowledge of most major game engines. For the last 5 years I have re-immersed myself into the Unreal Engine (4.x and 5.x), exploring changes in the technology since v3.x, with focus on the Material Editor and PCG Graphs. For 15 years I've used the finite state machine addon PlayMaker with Unity to develop projects for academic, commercial, and independent releases under my own labels or as a contractor.
GAME JAMS, COMMUNITY, AND ORGANIZATIONS
Unreal
With two colleagues, I helped restart the Boston Game Developers monthly Unreal meetup. We organize speaking events, social gatherings, and professional networking events for other developers using and interested in the engine.
Global Game Jam
networking For 13 years I have participated in, then hosted the Global Game Jam in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, USA, contributing to multiple projects every year while maintaining food and caffeine supplies, experience, and encouragement.
PVGD, StudioArtician, and More
For nearly 10 years I have co-organized and hosted monthly game developer meetups, game jams, lectures, demo nights, and social events for my areas professionals, students, and independents (pvgd.org).
Additionally, I founded the studio StudioArtician, a work for hire studio in Massachusetts focused on bespoke technology installations for museums, academia, and experimental media.
Thank you for taking the time to review my materials. I am not afraid to work on an adult-themed project, love dinosaurs, love survival games, and have no qualms protecting helpless females from the wilds. I'd enjoy working on your project.
Please see the links below for more examples of my work. You can see my current resume here; a full CV can be provided on request.
Regards,
Creath Carter
contact@creathcarter.com
Additional Project Credits for Work Shown
WithMe Environment Art
Art Director: Jem Gaylani
Lead Artist: Lulu Neel
Tech Art: Eric Iwasaki
Additional 3D Art: Casey Billadeaux
Lord of the Rings Online
Lead Worldbuilder: Ross Glover
Additional 3D Art: Mark Lizotte
Additional 3D Art: Brandon Bateman
Additional 3D Art: Tara Rueping
HitPoint Studios Games
2D Art/3D Art Support: Steve Forde
PGS Games
Art Direction: Nate Meltzer
2D Art: Dan Dussault
2D Art: David McCormack
Animation: Ryan Brown
Additional Tech Art: Wayne Darby